Top 40 DCOB students honored by Advantage Business Magazine

Academic Excellence, hard work, dedication and leadership are qualities of the “Top 40- Best and Brightest of the Davis College of Business” in the late-fall edition of Advantage Business Magazine.

Forty Davis College of Business students were recently honored at a reception for their academic, professional and extra-curricular success at Jacksonville University. Twenty undergraduate and graduate students were selected from the more than 850 students among the 11 undergraduate and six graduate business programs offered at Jacksonville University. The elite group has students from 10 different states and five foreign countries.

“Three years ago, we approached Jacksonville University, looking for ways to enhance our relationship,” said Brian Barquilla ’95, publisher of Advantage Business Magazine. “We felt that we should honor and highlight the top talent, along with helping those students be successful after graduation.”

A profile of each student was placed in the magazine highlighting their career aspirations, professional and academic accomplishments and ideal work environment. Students were selected based on their grade point average, campus and professional leadership accomplishments and faculty recommendations.

“These students are the best and most talented bunch we have ever seen,” said Dr. Don Capener, Dean of the Davis College of Business. “We want to showcase these students to the business community; this event and magazine will impress anyone.”

Members of the Advantage team conducted seminars on the subject of personal branding and enhancing online presence through the professional social network, LinkedIn. Students were given access to professional headshots and training to create a professional profile to utilize for professional networking and job prospecting. Each student profile included a link to their LinkedIn profile to be used as an avenue for local businesses to network with them.

This is the second year of honoring student achievement through this publication. Last year, a different group of 40 students were highlighted and honored in a similar manner for the inaugural year. The initiative was sponsored by Northwestern Mutual and Aerotek, along with Advantage and the Davis College of Business.

“Last year’s class was very well received by the business community and we felt compelled to continue this project annually each fall,” Barquilla said. “We are excited to have added Aerotek as a sponsor this year and appreciate Northwestern Mutual’s continued support.”

Advantage B2B Marketing & Consulting, publisher of Advantage Business Magazine, is a marketing firm that specializes in assisting small- to medium-sized businesses in a six-county area in Northeast Florida and South Georgia. Their flagship product is Advantage Business Magazine, which has a distribution of 27,000 business professionals in the surrounding area, both online and print.